Influential politician calls for crypto to be tax exempt

Prominent former Libertarian and Republican politician, Ron Paul, says that cryptocurrencies shouldn’t be taxed. 

In a blog, the former Libertarian Presidential candidate and Republican Congressman, Ron Paul – a man many cite as being the spiritual father of the more recent right-wing Tea Party movement – has once again railed against the US Federal Reserve and called for cryptoassets to be exempt from taxation.

As befits his political profile, Paul starts by backing President Trump’s criticism of recent US interest rate hikes and saying his description of the Federal Reserve as “crazy” is apt. He then moves on to a wider critique of the body, and a historical re-cap on the role of assets such as gold and silver as an stable store of value – and contrasting that to fiat money, which he calls “anything but stable”.

“Central banks constantly increase and decrease the money supply in an attempt to control the economy by controlling the interest rates,” he asserts, causing “individuals to misread market conditions, leading to a misallocation of resources” and the “illusion of prosperity.”

These are similar concepts to those that underpinned Satoshi Nakamoto’s initial creation of Bitcoin in response to the the Quantative easing measures world banks in response to the banking crisis of 2008. Paul also goes on to echo another of the central philosophical aspects of Bitcoin’s internal economy, the fact that it is deflationary, saying that by the time money printed by central banks “reaches the middle class and working class, inflation has set in, so any gain in purchasing power is more than offset by the increase in inflation.”

“Thus,” he concludes, “central banking causes income inequality.”

“It is likely that the next Fed-created recession will come sooner rather than later,” Paul concludes. He then signs off the blog by asserting that the only way to avoid such a crisis will be to audit the Fed, “allowing people to use alternative currencies, and exempting all transactions in precious metals and cryptocurrencies from capital gains taxes and other taxes.”